Xiao Bai Cai (Bak Choy)

I started a seed tray of 小白菜 Bak Choy on 12 Sep 2015. These are little growing machines! By the next day, little shoots have started to appear.

This is how they have grown on the 3rd day! I have 1 seed in each cubby hole of the ice tray. We are looking at more than 80% success rate. 

Seedlings have grown to about 1.5cm. Now let's pray they keep up the good work!

Update 17 Sep 2015:

On the 5th day, I transferred the seedlings into individual cups. These are mini cupcake cups, around 3.5cm wide. Seedlings are about 2-2.5cm

Update 19 Sep 15:

It's been 1 week since we sowed the Bak Choy seeds. 

Potted the seedlings in a 40cm (l) X 15cm (w) X 15cm (h) trough. Seedlings are about 2.5-3.5cm. I have 2 troughs and about 32 seedlings in total. 

Update 26 Sep 2015: 

It's been 2 weeks since we sowed the seeds and the bak choy has grown.

These babies just sprout so quickly after potting in soil. I use chicken poo to fertilise weekly. Hope this works!

Stevia

Here is another mysterious plant. I got it from the nursery and the gardener called it 甜菊 (sweet chrysanthemum).

He explained that the sweet leaves can be used as a sugar alternative! Because I like to enjoy a daily cup of tea, this is exactly what I have been hunting around for. Gardener explained that boiling in water releases the sweetness of the leaves.

These floral buds will bloom into little white lovelies!

Update 10 Sep 15:

So I have gone on a wild goose chase trying to identify this plant. I can safely conclude that it is Stevia (甜菊). A South American native plant, also commonly called honey leaf plant, sweet chrysanthemum, sweet leaf, sugarleaf, etc.

Found a comprehensive article stating its benefits: http://www.nutrition-and-you.com/stevia-plant.html

But Stevia brings to mind the artificial sweeteners scares of being carcinogenic and used as a contraceptive. So some research is needed before trying it out.

Regarding its carcinogenic properties, appears that there is a general consensus that altered Strvia is the most damaging. The natural, unprocessed versions seem alright. Here is a rather comrehensive article: http://draxe.com/stevia-side-effects/

Regarding its contraceptive properties, the fear stem from its traditional use among the indigenous populations of South America as a contraceptive. Lab tests are not unanimously conclusive. Depending on website agendas, articles also sway.

I think this independent post by Norished Kitechen voicing their stand on Stevia, sort of sums up my current take.

http://nourishedkitchen.com/whats-your-take-on-stevia/

"How do I use stevia now? Occasionally I find myself served an herbal tea that has stevia leaves added to it. Meh.  I finish the cup and don’t ask for more." 

- Nourished Kitchen

In case I might have a change of heart and become more confident, here is how to use the fresh leaves.

Fresh stevia leaves can be used to sweeten tea or in sauces. A few fresh stevia and mint leaves will make a refreshing herbal tea when steeped in a cup of boiling water.

Tomatoes - Rubies on the Vine

Inspired by the bountiful tomato harvests of fellow local gardeners, I decided to jump on the bandwagon of growing tomatoes from seeds - especially since we have organic tomatoes in the refrigerator.

We made a lovely mozerella caprese and saved the stray seeds on the cutting board. The seeds were a little wet, so I left them overnight on the window sill.

I sowed the seeds on 22 Aug 2015. As usual, I like to germinate tiny seeds in ice trays as it means starting on less potting mix. The moisture conditions are also easier to control in smaller areas. I placed a seed in each corner of the cubby holes. Managed to fill 9 cubby holes with a total of 36 seeds.

On the 3rd day, the first sprouts started to appear. By the 6th, most of the seedlings were out.

To be candid, I am still clueless about the variety of tomatoes we will be getting. The label on the box just states that it's organic Rubies on the Vine from Mexico.

I am guessing (and hoping) it's going to be an indeterminate (vine) instead of a determinate (bush). As indeterminate are perennials. But it's a wild guess subject to more research. 

Some growers mention the possibility of hybrid tomatoes flowering but eventually not fruiting. Without much information about this variety, the risk of disappointment is omni-present.

Update 5 Sep 2015:

The seedlings have grown stronger. Some have even sprouted new leaves. So I decided to pot them individually before the roots get too entangled. 

The Welgrow substrate is so well aerated it is not too difficult to separate the seedlings.

Most growers recommend thinning down the seedlings at this point. However, I am too inexperienced to decide which seedling is a better specimen to keep and which one to discard. So I decided to keep all the well formed ones, which is majority and if need be, use them to experiment growing techniques. 

I transplanted the seedlings individually into mini cupcake holders. 33 seedlings made it. Way too many. I would give them away if I am more confident that they can fruit. 

So it's back to research work before I decide what to do with these little lovelies! 

Update 26 Sep 2015:

Almost a month after sowing the seeds. These tomato seedlings are finally putting out more leaves. It looks like these seeds sprout quickly but grow slowly.

Update 3 Jan 2016:

The seedlings grew quickly after potting. Within a month, they grew to about 30cm and started flowering. For the longest time, the flowers just dried off. I read that hybrids usually do not fruit and thought this could actually be one of those.

It is about 4 months since we sprouted the seeds and the 2 surviving plants are about 1m tall.

Yesterday however, a singular tomato was finally spotted on one of the plants. It's exhilarating!

Let's hope there are more to come!

 

Common Lime Butterfly

It's the monsoon season here in sunny Singapore. The edible garden is especially vibrant with a new lease of life. New shoots are sprouting and the garden plays host to a myraid of insects. Some more friendly than others. 

Over the weekend, we found the tiniest caterpillars feasting on the lime leaves.

These lovelies are the caterpillars of the common lime butterfly. They were about 7mm when I first found them on the undersides of the young leaves of the lime plant. A dead giveaway are chomped leaves and little poo pellets.

Papilio Demoleus is one of the more common swallowtail butterflies. The caterpillars display distinctive tinges of brown and light yellow stripes on their bodies. These are colour tones that are very much like the adult butterfly.

Butterflies are essential in the ecological system of the edible garden. They help pollinate the flowers. However, the caterpillars if left to their own devices, are quite damaging to young plants. 

The common lime caterpillar are picky eaters and chomp through young leaves. They leave the plant looking patchy and sad. Some plants cannot support the prolific growth of these big eaters.

I was inspired by fellow gardeners to keep the cuties in glass jars. We are doing our part to sustain the ecological system, in a controlled environment. They grow and develop so quickly it's instant gratification for the kids to track their progress.

I keep the caterpillars in glass jars, covered with breatheable insect repellant mesh. Ironical, but it works to keep them in.

All it takes is to clean out the droppings every morning. I add the caterpillar poo to the soil of the lime plant, as a way of giving back. The uneaten leaves are replaced with sprigs of the choicest young leaves. This way, the larvae are fed and the lime plant is safe (for now)!

By the 2nd day, one of the larva grew substantially. #01 was slightly longer than 1cm while #02 remained stagnant. In fact #02 hardly moved from its position and did not respond. I thought it was gone, but left it in the jar just in case.

On the 3rd day, #01 has doubled in size overnight. 

#02 is revived and has resumed its growth! Thank goodness we gave it time to get used to the new environment!

On the 4th day, a surprise awaits us. #01 has transformed into a beautiful green larva. We segregated it from #02, which is still going strong. Plus, we found a new little fella #03!

A closer look at the beautiful colours of #01! [update: this is the 5th instar caterpillar stage]

After comparing with #03, it becomes obvious that #02 has grown substantially since we found it. 

Will update the progress!

Update 19 Aug 2015:

It has been almost a week since we last updated. In caterpillar world, alot of changes can happen in a week. 

#01 doubles in size everyday.

The larva has the cutest wide apart eyes.

In the morning, #02 (on the left) is a late stage 4th instar caterpillar.

When we returned that night, #02 (on the left), has freshly moulted into a 5th instar caterpillar.

On the 6th day, I found out more about the caterpillar and decided to include some sticks into the glass bottles for the caterpillar to cling on to for pupation eventually.

The kiddos love to help track the growth of the caterpillars.

4 days after the 5th instar, the caterpillar comes to rest at the side of the bottle. It stayed dormant before purging. It then spins a silk pad and a silk girdle to become an immobile pre-pupatory larva.

The pre-pupatory larva as seen from the top. From this stage on, it no longer feeds and we can only wait patiently. 

Pupation happens on #01 the very next day. The pupa suspends itself with a silk girdle. #01 pupa is in green form. 

From the side view, the pupa is angled and we can see a dorsal thoracic hump.

A pair of cephalic horns can be clearly seen from the top.

This pupa stage should last for about 9 days. We are holding our breath as we observe the coloration development on the pupal case. 

#02 has also become an immobile pre-pupatory larva. #03 is extremely shy, so it's in hiding.

Update 19 Aug 2015:

How exciting that #02 undergoes pupation the very next night. And it's a pupa in brown form!

The underside of the brown form is so vividly beautiful.

Twiddling our thumbs as we wait for our 2 happy pupae to eclose.

Update 25 Aug 2015:

After so much anticipation the most incredible part of the process happened! 7 days after pupation, #01 emerged!!! Nothing can prepare us for the beauty.

 

And it's a boy! He was way bigger than I imagined, more than 5cm wide!

Posted a video of us releasing the little beauty here: https://www.facebook.com/weimein/videos/10155997312520646/

Note: We found out a lot about the Common Lime Butterfly from this blog. http://butterflycircle.blogspot.sg/2011/11/life-history-of-lime-butterfly-v20.html

Update 10 Sep 2015:

We managed to capture videos of the larva molting into pupa here:

https://www.facebook.com/weimein/videos/10156057087895646/

As well as the pupa eclosing into butterfly: 

https://www.facebook.com/weimein/videos/10156057108200646/

These videos are 4x speed.

Update 1 Mar 2016:

After our experience with the first butterflies way back in August 2015, we have been periodically releasing the common lime butterfly back into the eco system. The highest record we had was 11 butterflies consecutively over a few days.

If there are only 2-3 caterpillars, I leave them on the citrus plants. This is because, after they nibble at the leaves, new shoots will form and flowers will grow on these shoots. So I do not need to prune to plants. I will however, place them in glass bottles once they moult into 5th instar (turn green). This is because they are more seceptible to predators at stage. I suspect they are not too delicious when they are brown and spiky, but the birds love them when they turn green and juicy. Their mortality rate is high at this stage. 

However, if there are more than a handful, I will transfer some into glass bottles. This is because my lime plants are small. If the colony gets too big, they can still wipe out too much leaves.

After a short hiatus, we are seeing another surge of the common lime butterfly this week. 

We noticed that the common lime butterfly usually eclose at dawn (6-7am). That was how we managed to capture the eclosing on video. 

By the time we leave home around 8-9am, it's wings would have dried enough to release. They usually flutter away quickly when we release them in the daytime.

This little beauty was released last Thursday night. We only discovered her when we returned after dark. She flew out and quickly landed on our magnolia to rest for the night. Looks like these butterflies rest at night.

This little beauty is a girl. Gender can be easily identified from the 2 red spots at their hindwings. Females have a big black spot capped with a narrow blue lunule (blue irridicent strip). While males have a small black gap below the blue lunule. 

Update 17 Mar 2016:

We have a record batch of 9 butterflies that eclosed on the same day! Counted 8 but realised we had 9. Such joy!

Kiddos has a field day. Here is a video of us counting and releasing the beauties:

https://www.facebook.com/weimein/posts/10156831771195646

Mystery yellow lemon

We picked up a pot of what looked like yellow lemon from a local nursery that we have not visited before. The seller was very determined to make the sale. A yellow lemon tree ranked quite high in my bucket list, so it was not too difficult to succumb to the idea. Even though this was a small plant, it was laden with fruits. A good sign of fertility. I assumed.

The idea of tree ripened lemons was just too good to be true. 

At the nursery, I did notice that the leaves looked odd and tired. They were also caked in muddy sediments. I was concerned but was assured that they were watered with reused water and all was fine. I was given clear instructions that there was no need to prune or remove any leaves.

So I happily lugged the pot home and gave it a good rinsing and watering. I placed it alongside our happy limes and stared lovingly - as I do with most of the newbies. As the water on the newly washed out leaves started to dry out, I noticed some of the leaves did not look right. Many young leaves were curled, some were deformed... Even as a novice, it does not look like good news. A quick google, and further examination revealed a severe problem of leafminers! Highly contagious and hard to eradicate. 

Immediately set out to isolate. First thing was to spray neem oil on all the existing plants, especially those that came in direct contact. 

Then started to work on the infected plant. Upon closer inspection of the undersides of the leaves, the infestation distinguished by distinctive maze-like trails was extensive! Practically every leaf visible was affected. Pensively started to trim the leaves. Worse hit branches were entirely pruned off. Possibly only 3% of the leaves were left by the time I was done. Certainly not recommended, but this was a really bad case. The fruits still looked decent, so they were kept intact.

Not knowing if I was doing the right thing, this intensive pruning was a wild shot. Nothing happened for a week. This was how barren the plant remained 3 days after the butchering.

There was a lot of remedy work after this on the other plants as well. I was on high alert. 2 days later, the infestation was spotted on one of the lime plants and a cherry apple, I swooped in mercilessly! The cherry apple came from the same nursery, so I am not too sure if it came with the infestation. But the lime I knew for sure was in the pink of health and was in contact with the lemon for barely a couple of hours. That's how fast and contagious the leafminers are! Inspected and trimmed off every single infected leaf as soon as signs appeared. Infected leaves are placed in plastic bag, tied up and disposed - out of reach of the plants. 

It's been 10 days and I am still paranoid about checking and pinching off any leaf that might even vaguely be spotted with symptoms of leafminers. Plus I am still fastidious with spraying affected plants with neem oil, once every few days. Especially the citrus - both the lemon and lime - because they are the leafminers' favourite. 

As for the lemon tree, I was relieved to notice little green nodes developing 5 days after the shave. On the 7th day, little shoots were finally visible. 

So happy to see the little shoots sprouting throughout the almost bare branches.

Despite the scare, the lemons fruits are still going strong. We've had 2 good lemons that ripened to a deep yellow, on the branches. The fragrance is unparalleled by the store-bought lemons. 

Although the fruits are oblong, the skin when sliced is not too thick. The texture of the citrus skin is also considerably smoother than a lemon, although not as smooth as a lime. It does however ripen to a rich yellow on the tree, is super juicy and only moderately sour. Mildly bitter, but that could be due to poor growing conditions.

Because it displays qualities of both lemon and lime, it could be either or a hybrid. It also does not fall clearly into descriptions of common lemon varieties. The closest I have found is Sweet Lemon, native to South East Asia. But it cannot be pin-pointed. So it's lineage is still a mystery for now. But it looks more like a lemon than a lime, so I'll call it a Mystery Lemon for now. 

The fragrant lemon works perfectly on its own in ice-cold sparkling water, or with a honey drink.

Lessons learnt from this episode:

1. To not introduce newly purchased plants directly to existing plants. Especially if they come from dodgy nurseries! 

2. To be more confident of gut instincts when it comes to spotting troubled plants.

Now fingers crossed that after the leaves sprout, there is no revival of the leafminers. Also hopefully, we can work on getting the plant to flower and fruit! 

Update 9 August 2015:

It's Day 11 since the massive pruning and trimming. New shoots are going strong, averaging 1 to 2cm. Looks promising. 

However, traces of leafminers still found on some of the remaining leaves. So the war still goes on. Infected leaves are immediately removed, placed in bags and disposed far away. Spraying of neem oil happens on alternate nights after sunsets. 

Update 31 Aug 15:

It has been a month since the war against the leafminer moth. I have been cutting off affected leaves and spraying neem oil. But the young shoots seem to encourage more activities.

With so few leaves left on the plant, I started to inspect the plant more closely. I notice a colony of tiny flying insects. A quick Google reveals these are the adult moth that have been producing larvae that are causing all the leaf mining activities. Unfortunately, intensive spraying of neem oil does not deter the adult moths too much. They are very productive and expand the colony quickly. I realised more drastic actions needed to be taken. 

So I had a go at eliminating the moths. Not easy at the beginning, as there are a lot of them and they fly off quickly. I realised that if I spray the neem oil directly at the moths, in quick successions of 3-4 spritz, it sort of petrifies them and then I move in quickly to squash them between my fingers. 

I learnt to spot the adult moths by going on all fours and looking under the leaves and stems. In this picture, you can see three moths. They are about 2-3mm long, black and white (so they look a little grayish) and they usually stick out at an angle from the underside of the leaf/stem. Here you see 1 on the underside and 2 above because they have been disrupted, took off and landed on top of the leaf instead. 

On the first day, I must have cleared out 50-60 adults. It was endless. I continued everyday for what feels like a week of forever. The moth population gradually dwindled. It has been 1 month since the start of the battle and the past couple of days were the first time we did not spot any moths. But the suspicion is still gnawing at my conscience. No wonder seasoned gardeners cringe at the mention of leafminers. 

On a lighter note, I saved a seed from the first lemon we harvested. Removed the shell from the pip and poped it into substrate. 

This is the happy seedling 25 days after sowing. It may or may not fruit, it could also take years to mature. But I am just keeping it as a momento for now.

Update 23 Feb 2016:

This happy lemon plant has been through a lot. Countless rounds of neem oil spraying, extensive pruning, draught, caterpillar feasting...

I leave it isolated on the balcony, with full morning sun. Apart from the occasional leaf miner moth, it has been taking its time recovering. 

The bare branches are the work of caterpillars of the common lime butterfly, which love the leaves. I leave them on the plants until they moult into green instar caterpillars (then I rear them in glass bottles, but that's another story). I used to think the caterpillars are wasteful feeders. But I subsequently realise that the nibbled stalks tend to grow better shoots. So they are nature's pruners. 

Now, 5 months from when we first started trying to exterminate the leafminer moths, we are finally seeing flower buds!!!

It is such a relief to spot an explosion of flower buds. Xo

Update 1 Mar 2016:

Such a glorious day and the lemon flowers are starting to bloom!

Receiving love from the morning sun.

These blooms are so fragrant and has attracted a happy bee. I have been tapping the flowers to hopefully help pollinate.

Fingers crossed for lemons : )